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Alton Sterling, the Louisiana man whose death at the hands of police officers was caught on camera and is now being investigated by the Justice Department, was the kind of guy who would give a stranger "the shirt off his back."

Just ask his aunt. She claims she saw him do it.

Alton Sterling was killed during an altercation involving police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on July 5, 2016.WVLA-TV

"I was out there one day," Lorna Sterling told NBC News on Wednesday as the fury over yet another cop slaying of a black man continued to build. "The man passed by with no shirt on."

But as family and friends remembered the slain 37-year-old Baton Rouge man as a jovial giant who was quick to laugh, a second narrative of Sterling as a petty criminal and registered sex offender also emerged.

That wasn't the man Lorna Sterling remembered.

"Alton was full of joy," she said. "Alton was the joy of our get-togethers."

For years, Sterling sold CDs in the parking lot of the Triple S Food Mart, the same spot where he was killed Tuesday.

"He was a nice guy, always smiling, always happy, always joking around with people," he said. "Never seen him get into fights with anybody, never seen him get into any, kind of, even arguments out there with people."

But Muflahi also confirmed reports that Sterling recently got a gun for protection after his friend got mugged.

"His friends also sell CDs at different locations," Muflahi said. "They'd been getting robbed lately, so he felt that he need something to protect himself if anything was to happen to him

How a convicted felon like Sterling could have allegedly obtained a gun wasn't immediately clear.

His sentence was suspended, and he got five years' probation and was ordered him to start paying child support.

Sterling also had a previous confrontation with police.

Records show that he was charged on May 29, 2009 with resisting an officer, although the circumstances weren't immediately clear.

During the same run-in with police, Sterling was charged with assault, battery, disturbing the peace, possession of a firearm, possession of marijuana and possession of stolen property, the records show.

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